Fire Hazard Appliance Recalls UPDATED NORCOLD INFO 11-20-2010

I never had a problem with my refrigerator until they informed me of the recall. When they put the Chinese sensor on the fridge the coils blew out. When I called Norcold I was pretty much told, "Tough", they had no responsibility for the coils being blown. Personally, I think the solution that came from earlier post was the best solution. I replaced the coils with the Amish built ones from Shipshewana, Indiana. No black box, no red light, no PROBLEM. When I was in Arizona on vacation I bought two 4" pancake fans at Radio Shack, made legs for them out of threaded rod, and set them in the corner of the compartment blowing up across the coils. My refrigerator works perfect. Freezes ice cream and keeps stuff cold while being set on 5. And it was easy to do.

hottubkid wrote:
We just returned from AZ and on the way the recall shut the refer down .I checked it out and the black box of the recall had shut the refer down. Here I am with a full refer and no cooling. I saw the red light on the recall and checked the 12 volt in and out of the box. Because of the situation I jumped the black box out. Called the dealer in Bull Head city and they wanted the coach for three days. Drove home with it jumped out. When to the dealer here and they reset the black box and told me to run it for 24 hours and charged me $56.00. I learned that to reset the black box all you have to do is hold a strong magnet to the upper right hand of the box until you hear a click and after the unit has cooled down. If I had this knowledge I would not have jumped out the safety and still would have been protected. Just a FYI for my camping friends

How do you 'jump out' the box?

Hi, I'm new here.

We just bought a 2003 Fleetwood Revolution and found out about the recall on the Norcold 1200LRIM 4 door refrigerator. We had the motorhome at a dealership a couple of days ago to get it and the tow vehicle fitted for towing and they did the recall work (installed a high temperature sensor box) on the fridge while it was there. The fridge ran fine on propane and then on AC. We returned home today and emptied the fridge and shut it off, as we're going to park the motorhome with batteries off until we're ready to head south for winter. Hubby washed the motorhome and parked it. Walking by, he could see the red light glowing from the back of the fridge. The fridge hadn't even been running for a couple of hours at that point, so obviously nothing was overheating, the thing just tripped for no reason. Of course now the fridge won't turn on at all. Tomorrow we'll be phoning the dealership where the work was done, and we'll also try the magnet reset. We live on a farm about 4 hours away from where the work was done. We farm, harvest is approaching, and we simply do not have time for another trip to get them to fix this. Was this recall kit installation worth it? As it stands now, it didn't 'protect' us from anything. Nothing was overheating, nothing was leaking. We'll be trying to reset or bypass the kit until a new one can be installed.

They put that Chinese sensor on mine, lasted less than 4 hours. Then I was told the coils were blown. I never had a problem with my fridge until they started doing the recall. To replace my fridge would cost me approximately $4,300.00. And I would still have the same cheap coils as before. The Amish made coils are heavier metal and has double coils. I also found out that my cooling fans had their wires switched. Even though they are DC current they will not work if wired backwards. I didn't have any proof of who had done it. But the instructions with the new coils helped me straighten it out. If you are handy at all, or know someone who is, then you can change the coils yourself and eliminate the recall issue.

Yes, it does have the red light on. no blinking, just steady light. Thanks for the info. That seems to be my problem. I hope its no more than that.

William

Make sure you check the heater pipes also. If one of them burns out it won't let the fridge cool.

If the recall Chinese box has a red light on then it is blown. If you see metal chips in the area of the propane igniter then the coils are blown. Do not replace the refrigerator. They blew my coils out with their worthless recalls and then claimed they were not responsible. There is a company in Shipshewana, IN that makes coils for RV and Marine applications. The distributor is in Nashville, TN. You can do a google search and find the number. It cost me $1075.00 for them to drop ship the new coils to my house. I used a motorcycle jack to get the 1200 LM refrigerator out in my 2002 Southwind. They send you a complete set of instructions that are easy to follow. I removed 4 bolts, disconnected the cooling fans, took the old coils off, clean up the area where they were mounted, recaulked the fins and freezer area, put the new coils in, replaced the 4 bolts, sealed the seams, pushed it back in the opening and hooked it up. That was 4 years ago. Last year while I was in Arizona I mounted 2 pancake fans I bought at Radio Shack in the back of the fridge for extra cooling. The temp is set on 5 and it now freezes ice cream. If you need further info do not hesitate to e-mail me.

I have a 2004 southwind with the Norcold 1200 refrigerator and have had two of the recalls done. I am now waiting for an appt. to get it checked out to determine if a third box is to be put on. As best as I can remember, the only other problem we have had with this refer is the ice maker had to be replaced. I read most of the comments on this forum under the Norcold recall and there was a mention of a smell of amonia when something went wrong. We were in Fl. last winter when we smelled a bad odor in the area of the ref. and curio cabinet(they are close together) but the smell went away and the ref. worked as normally all the way home (Nearly 900 miles) and in June of this year we went to Myrtle Beach or just south of myrtle beach and back home. It seemed to work perfectly, but just recently I went to move the MH up to my house to plug it in to Elec but the ref would not swith on. I am waiting for an appointment to have it checked out . I am wondering if something in the cooling system might have gone bad. The only time we had the ref. on propane was while traveling. Two days on the way from Fl. and about 8 hours to myrtle beach and 8 hrs back home. Any info would appreciated

William

Our Norcold 1210 was in for it's 4th repair to the cooling unit and it finally happened......the unit caught on FIRE while in the shop, but fortunately the service technicians responded to the "on-board" smoke detector alarm, grabbed and dry chemical extinguishers and put out the fire before the coach and interior could ignite.

With so many fires, and product failures, how can Norcold continue to do business? Also, have you ever called their service center for assistance, talk about rude.

After a week and a half "off the road" we have installed a residential frig with little cabinet modifications and it seems to be working like a charm.

We just returned from AZ and on the way the recall shut the refer down .I checked it out and the black box of the recall had shut the refer down. Here I am with a full refer and no cooling. I saw the red light on the recall and checked the 12 volt in and out of the box. Because of the situation I jumped the black box out. Called the dealer in Bull Head city and they wanted the coach for three days. Drove home with it jumped out. When to the dealer here and they reset the black box and told me to run it for 24 hours and charged me $56.00. I learned that to reset the black box all you have to do is hold a strong magnet to the upper right hand of the box until you hear a click and after the unit has cooled down. If I had this knowledge I would not have jumped out the safety and still would have been protected. Just a FYI for my camping friends